In modern warfare it has become increasingly common to employ remotely controllable battle or surveillance vehicles. A particular advantage of such vehicles is that they can be employed to carry out potentially dangerous tasks and thus enable a significant reduction in human casualties.
A system employing driverless combat vehicles as operational targets was developed by Kaman Sciences Corporation in the late 1970's. A presentation of this system, entitled "Remote Control Target Vehicles For Operational Testing", was made by Keith W. Stokes to the Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems Symposium, Jul. 17-19, 1989, Washington D.C., U.S.A.. The system uses three RF (radio frequency) transponders placed in a triangular arrangement so as to form the periphery of a desired operational area. Navigational control of a vehicle is exercised via the Rf transponders. The vehicle control system employs a receiver, a microprocessor based controller and servo actuators.
The above-described system requires a prepared area and cannot, therefore, be employed in actual combat. The vehicles employed, furthermore, are dedicated vehicles, and serve only as target vehicles.
A further dedicated, special purpose robotic vehicle, known as ROBAT (Robotic Obstacle Breaching Assault Tank) was developed as a lead vehicle for dangerous battlefield situations. The ROBAT was developed by TACOM of the U.S. Army.